M League Draft to be Held on June 25, Live on ABEMA

The M League organization announced on June 18 that its draft conference for the 2026-27 season will take place at 6:00 PM on June 25, and will be broadcast live on the mahjong channel of internet television service ABEMA.

During the draft, teams that make selections will gain exclusive negotiation rights with the players they pick. Teams cannot select a player already chosen by another team, and there will be no lottery for overlapping selections. The order of selection will be determined by the final standings of the 2025-26 M League season, with the lowest-ranked team picking first, followed by teams in ascending order of finish.

Three teams are set to pick new players for the upcoming season: Sega Sammy Phoenix (which has concluded its contract with Asai Doki), U-NEXT Pirates (which has concluded its contract with Kobayashi Tsuyoshi), and KADOKAWA Sakura Knights (which has terminated its contract with Shibukawa Nanba). They will select players who belong to competitive mahjong professional organizations including the Japan Professional Mahjong League, the Japan Professional Mahjong Association, the Saikōisen Japan Professional Mahjong Association, the Mahjong Federation -μ-, and RMU. Based on this season's results, the selection order for these three teams will be: Sakura Knights first, then Pirates, and finally Phoenix.